Saturday, October 31, 2009

Traditional `Anglican` Communion?

I hope we get some details soon about the Apostolic Constitution. Presumably as we have had the press conference it is written and ready to publish. I still think it is a brilliant gesture towards Anglicans who are seeking to find full communion with the Holy See. However recent conversations have thrown up a couple of points. I hear Anglican converts , both clergy and lay, asking what are the distinctive features of Anglicanism which Rome is seeking to preserve? I suppose we have to look to the Anglican Use parishes in the USA to get an idea. Also there seems uncertainty whether Rome will allow the ordination of married men to continue in the new ordinariate. Archbishop Hepworth says he believes this is the case, others seem to think not. Time will tell. However I found out that I know a couple of TAC clergy already. What is interesting is that like archbishop Hepworth himself they were previously Catholic clerics. The two I know were ordained for Ecclesia Dei institutes, one being a founding member of the FSSP (also here) and the other a deacon with the Institute of Christ the King: both were converts to Catholicism from Anglicanism before reverting. Maybe there are more. I have heard it said that the clergy will need to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Since it seems some have been ordained Catholic priests and others by episcopi vagantes and others by Anglican bishops that will certainly be true.

UPDATE: Thanks to Et Expecto for drawing my attention to today`s announcement. New candidates for the priesthood are to be celibate. It looks as if Fr McCready got married just in time!

9 comments:

It seems from today's news that the only married clergy in the new structure will be those who were previously married clergy in an Anglican Church. It will not normally be possible for a lay married person to be ordained.

A possible grey area is the case of a married man who is part way through his seminary training. Apparently such cases may be considered in the light of individual circumstances.

To be quite honest and frank about this travesty of a marriage, I would be disgusted if that apology for a priest was EVER considered a suitable person to act as a Catholic priest anywhere in the world. He has proved himself incapable of honouring his vow of celibacy once already, and his being married in his clerical garb seems to me to be deliberately provocative to every authentic Catholic priest.

I remember a journalist many years ago offering the following advice.."Don't spoil a good story by doing too much research."

I feel I have fallen into the "too much research" trap over the Apostolic Constitution. What seemed at first to be a wonderful gesture by the Church to the Anglo Catholics is turning into a legalistic, theological and disciplinary morass which could seriously threaten the doctrinal purity of the Catholic Church.

A question - are all Anglican ordinands still required to assent to the 39 Articles of Faith?I am thinking especially of Article 28 "Transubstantiation...is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture", and Article 31 "...the Sacrifice of Masses ...were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits."

Is it also true that ordinands of the High variety leave buttons 28 and 31 undone when making the declaration?

Has anyone Googled Archbishop Hepworth? Check out his clerical origins and his two marriages and one divorce.

1569, just to say that it must be about 10 years since Fr McCready left the Catholic Church, so he can`t be accused of running off to get married. However I do think clergy in the new ordinariate will need to be checked on a case by case basis.

I don't know whether Fr McCready RAN OFF to get married or just strolled, but it is the clerical garb that got me. He looked like something out of Fr Ted.

Em, There will be joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth!I am always open to persuasion and am happy to be convinced on any subject, (as long as that is not CND or Pax Christi) - some subjects are just too much.

To be fair to the Revd Mr McCready, he is now a clergyman of the TAC and so entitled to wear clerical garb to his wedding I would have thought.

It appears more and more that the Anglica Ordinariate idea is dead in the water. If they are not to be allowed married clergy in the future and conversion is to be considered on a 'case by case' basis, then what is different from the present situation?

What are the 'distinctive traditions' that they will be allowed to retain?

Truly, I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church impressed me.

St Augustine: Contra epistolam Manichaei 5.6

“The usus antiquior should be a standard element of the cultural capital of all Latin Rite Catholics since it so effectively resists secularism and satisfies the post-modern hunger for coherent order, beauty and an experience of self-transcendence.”